Taco Bell shows us how to use Twitter...

Hello again,

Today I would like to bring to attention the brilliant advertising minds at Taco Bell, who have found a way to get past all the noise on social media and build their brand image through humor. Taco Bell is the world's biggest Mexican fast food chain, and one of the most recognized brand's among fast food competitors. So while raising awareness would be nice, Taco Bell has found a way to comedic use Social Media (especially Twitter) to get people turning their tweets viral. While other companies continue to push their tweets and promotions onto consumers, Taco Bell simply creates funny tweets and then lets the Social Media universe handle the rest. By really listening to consumers Taco Bell has been able to crank out some of the funniest tweets I have ever seen, and content that continues live on by being passed around from one consumer to another.


Below are some of the best examples I have seen:  

In closing, Taco Bell knows how Social Media and they know they personality of their brand. This kind of advertising would not work for every brand, but it works for Taco Bell and they are very good at it. By using Social Media companies can communicate with consumers in an instant, and it can be used however your company sees fit. Taco Bell decided to use it to add to the legend of the brand, and I believe it has paid off.

Until Next Time,

Andrew


Sources:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-best-of-taco-bells-twitter

https://twitter.com/TacoBell

Speaker Prep (Earl Cox)

Hello again,

Today I would like to discuss an individual that was scheduled to talk with our class but unfortunately we never had a chance to meet him. His name is Earl Cox and he is currently the Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at the Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. He is a graduate of  both Virginia Tech and University of Virginia.

The Martin Agency was founded in 1965 as a small advertising agency. Now it has grown to be one of the biggest advertising firms in the country. In 2010, Martin Agency was named Advertising Age's "US Agency of the Year". Below I have a few questions I have liked to ask Mr. Cox:

1.       Strategic issue the company/brand is currently facing: How do you attempt to gain new clients in similar industries without conflicting with existing clients? EX: Bringing in a new food client, while you currently work with Kraft Foods

2.       Current consumer/customer perceptions of the company/brand: An Award Winning Agency that is capable of managing both a successful big budget or smaller budget advertising campaign.

3.       Specific, current event question based on the insights you discover: How much can you tell us about the upcoming Oreo Superbowl campaign? Is there something special you hope to accomplish with this advertising campaign.

So even though I was unable to meet Mr. Cox I was still happy to learn about his success and the
success of The Martin Agency. I hope you enjoyed it also.

Until Next Time,

Andrew Haug

Sources:

https://secure.hosting.vt.edu/www.marketing.pamplin.vt.edu/bio.php?page=ecox

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/martin-agency-tasked-handle-u-s-creative-ideas-oreo/238526/

http://www.martinagency.com/client

The New Trend...Advertising At Individuals

Hello World,

Today I would like to talk about a recent trend I have noticed in advertising. Rather than advertising a product for the benefits or showing one person using the product, companies now try to appeal to everyone by showing a different individuals engaging with the product.  To further explain this new trend I have included a few examples:

Windows Phone:



- This commercial starts off with the opening sentence "We are not for everybody", then continues to list its for the food lover, movie lover, road tripper, etc. Showing by the end, that the phone basically is for everyone.

Google Tablet:



- This commercial ends with the phrase, "For Everyone" after showing a montage of all the different people that might be interested in purchasing the product.

Dr. Dre Beats Headphones:



- This commercial does not necessary state that it is for everyone, however by the end of the commercial you see pro athletes, rappers, dancers, rock stars, pop stars, and average people. This helps paint a mental picture that these headphones can be worn by anyone and good for any type of music. 

Overall, I wanted to show that companies have begun changing the way they advertise to the public. By showing a wide range of different consumers in a commercial the company has a better chance of grabbing your attention than simply showing one person using a product. While one person in the commercial may not appeal to you, there will probably be two or three others that remind you of either yourself, someone you admire, or someone you would see yourself becoming friends with. By offering this extra personalities in the commercials, companies utilize the ability to appeal to you emotionally as well as showing you there new product they are offering.

In the end, not everyone company is advertising like this. I am just saying that more and more companies are adopting this approach, and I expect this to continue in the upcoming years. For all I know this might be a trend and fad out, or it might be here to stay.

Until next time,

Andrew Haug

   

Cuties (Made for All?)

Hello World,

Today I would like to examine the produce brand Cutie's and their attempts at bringing the brand into every home in America.

Background: Cuties is the name of a company that sells seed-less clementines marketed to children as a healthy snack alternative. Although Cuties has been successful, they now face many problems including other competition, consumer perceptions, and advertising to the right target market. These all sound like different problems, but with the right creative brief working off consumer's real insights these will all be solved with one successful advertising campaign. 




Consumer Insights: 1) Not everyone is set on purchasing a seed-less scientifically modified fruit
2) Cuite's brand name does not hold as much value as the company believes it does
3) Consumers complain about one rotten clementine spoiling the whole batch and Cutie's brand in general

Target Audience: Cuties is marketed to children and parents of children as easy to peel, but leaves out everyone else

Problem: Cutie's is a great product but currently it holds no more power than the other clementine brands. Children have no preference yet, and parents are not set on purchasing Cutie's. We must convince parents that Cutie's have an emotional connection and need to be part of their children's everyday life.

My Recommendation: Expand Cutie's advertising to show children of all ages, engaging in all their activities they are passionate about while eating Cutie's. Show the parents cheering on their children as they know the children are receiving the energy they need from a healthy snack you can eat on the go

.

By using this kind of advertising you now open the market to children of all ages rather than just small kids. Also we must show Cutie's being a partner with the consumer, helping you achieve your goals in life. We must make it feel as if Cutie's were removed from the picture the children would not feel as confident. This is the emotional element Cutie's needs to add to differentiate itself from other clementine companies.

Thanks for listening,

Andrew

Sources:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304373804577521241458781700.html

Julie Talbot (Speaker Prep)

Hello World,

The other day we were preparing to have a guest speaker for my advertising class. However due to circumstances out of our control (Superstorm Sandy) we were unable to meet Julie Talbot. So I thought I would go ahead and post my background and questions I had for here on my blog.



Background: Julie Talbot is Global Brand Manager for Burt's Bees Lip Category. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 2003 with a marketing degree, and later went on to receive her MBA from Rutgers. She currently works in Durham, North Carolina and manages the lip category which is estimated at over 100 million dollars. Here are some of the questions I would like to ask her:

1.       Strategic issue the company/brand is currently facing: How do you expand your brand into other hygiene products while staying true to your values as a company?

2.       Current consumer/customer perceptions of the company/brand: Burt’s Bees is among the leaders in lip balm, however when it comes to other products they are not yet considered the market leaders

3.       Specific, current event question based on the insights you discover: With the new manager coming in from Clorox and his experience he brings, how do you think this will help Burt’s Bees continue to grow?

Until next time,
Andrew Haug

Publicis (The Brand Managers)

Hello World,

Today I would like to take a minute to look into Publicis which is an international ad agency based in Europe. It does work all over the World, and is a major ad agency here in America working for such clients as Proctor & Gamble, Aflac, Wendys and Citibank. In my advertising class we were lucky enough to meet a gentleman named Chris Shumaker and he spoke about the process he conducts when creating a creative brief for a client. Some of the major points I pulled from his presentation are listed below:


Make an Emotional Connection: This is one of the most important factors when advertising, sometimes even when a company's sales are growing they still lack an emotional connection. By not having an emotional connection a company is vulnerable to competition taking away market share. Chris shared with us his experience with a Crest campaign. The problem was that consumers did not think about how important oral hygiene was in there everyday life. By presenting this as the problem to the creative team, they designed a whole campaign around "Your mouth is your portal to the World". This immediately made the product more relevant and put Crest into the consumer's mind when shopping for toothpaste.

Focus on Positive, Not Negative: Publicis does an amazing job on showing exciting events in your life rather than depressing times. Chris shared with us the advertising to change the way consumers viewed the brand of Bounty. Rather than viewing Bounty as the traditional "fix to the problem", they reinvented as "life happens and Bounty is there to help when it does". By changing the consumer's thinking process, they will now think of Bounty in a Positive light and become much more likely to gain an emotional attachment with it.



Show the Product in all Aspects of Life: This is another aspect of advertising that Publicis excels at. Rather than just showing one or two scenarios of a product, show how people will use it in any aspect of life. Publicis has done with this with the brand of Vicks, which is traditionally only thought of for the vapor rub. However, Vicks has a whole line of product that help breathing and recovering from the common cold. By launching a campaign that showed people going out into the World with the assistance of Vicks products they changed the consumers thoughts that Vicks should just be used in their bathrooms.

                                         

By using these three insights Publicis has reinvented many major brands and I am sure they will continue to succeed in the future. With great people working for them like Chris, I am sure that this company will not be going away anytime soon and I look forward to seeing their ad campaigns in the future.

Thanks again,

Andrew

*The three insights and everything stated above is all my opinions and thoughts. In no way are these the views or formula for Publicis when creating ads.*

Sources:

http://www.publiciskaplan.com/

NFL.COM Introduces the Next Big Game Changer

Hello again everyone,
(TL:DR available at bottom)

Background: Today I stumbled upon the future of reading websites. Similar to any other Monday, I like most men in America clicked on ESPN to check out the football scores and check our fantasy. Today however I wanted to check something else out on NFL.com, after clicking around for a couple of minutes I realized at the bottom I had accumulated some reward points. It was bright and engaging, so like any normal college student I clicked it. This is when I was introduced into the NFL.COM Fan Rewards program, which I have to admit blew my mind.

It seemed so simple to me, but yet I had never see anything like this before. A website offering rewards for the readers, creating an experience rather than just a one-way channel. I know the site worked on me today, rather than just reading a few articles as I would on ESPN.com; NFL.com tricked me into touring the whole site and watching countless videos on a quest to achieve badges and more reward points. That is the beauty of this reward program, NFL.COM rewards me for activities I would already be engaging in and on the other side, they can push products to me by offering extra reward points. Every week NFL.COM puts up challenges or what they call "Fan Drives", which is a series of tasks that if completed will offer some extra reward points. By using these "Fan Drives" NFL.COM can persuade the readers to check out certain content on the website.                    
                                                     
Real Example Fan Drive: Crucial Catch Campaign Drive           
                                                       
Task 1 - View the NFL Crucial Catch Campaign Page (10 Points)
Task 2 - Watch Video of Drew Brees supporting campaign (20 Points)
Task 3 - View the Donation and Registration Page (10 Points)
Bonus - Completion of Drive (5 Points)  

Just today I already earned over 700 points or about half-way to earning a cool pen with the NFL's logo on it. I know this sounds lame, but its a lot more than ESPN has ever given me. And now I am addicted to accumulating more points, so I will be heading to NFL.COM for all my football news and maybe even sometimes when I am bored to get my scores up.

Advertising Related: Basically this program got me to thinking. As every company struggles to find a way to stand out in the social media universe, NFL.COM has found a creative way to make a connection. I have seen this before on survey websites, but no one likes taking surveys without rewards. NFL.COM has used this same formula of rewarding points, and putting it on content that is valuable to the reader. Then by creating user leader boards, and encouraging readers to share these scores for extra reward points, NFL.COM has created viral content that people will want to share with their friends.

NFL.COM had a consumer insight that consumers had no brand loyalty when reviewing sports news. Whether it is viewing the scores on ESPN, Yahoo, or NFL.COM the reader has no incentive to picking a favorite. Although this is not an advertising campaign, creative teams for designing websites still face many of the same problems and issues. In this case, the creative team needed to add value to what you do online. They discovered it can be something as simple as a badge for viewing 5 videos that you can share with your friends. By building off these rewards the website creators made it simple to share these rewards and encourage readers to feel they are accomplishing challenges every time they log onto the website.

In class the other day we had a speaker who discussed the importance of creating an experience with the consumer, rather than a one-way channel. He said the biggest problem when offering a service online is creating a personal experience with the consumer on the other side. By using "Fan Drives" NFL.COM can lure readers into checking out content that would probably otherwise be overlooked. Now if NFL.COM can do this for sports videos and articles, imagine what CNN or Wall Street Journal can do to create an experience with their readers.


TL,DR: NFL.COM has created a reward points system that gives you points towards prices and sweepstakes for interacting with their website. Points are earned by watching a video, reading an article, commenting, or sharing with friends. This has changed my new favorite website for football from ESPN to NFL, and I can see other sites adding in these programs in the future.

By using this reward points system NFL.COM has created an experience for the reader rather than just a one-way channel. This program encourages readers to share the content with friends to earn tangible or real rewards outside of the internet.

So I ask you, who would not like to earn rewards for things you do on the internet anyway???


Thanks again,

Andrew Haug

Sources:

http://www.nfl.com/